Sr Manager, Machine Learning Engineering

McDonald's Corporation • Chicago, IL

8d

About The Position

McDonald’s is proud to be one of the most recognized brands in the world, with restaurants in over 100 countries that serve 70 million customers daily. We continue to operate from a position of strength. Our updated growth strategy is focused on staying ahead of what our customers want and realizing further growth potential. Our relentless ambition is why McDonald’s remains one of the world’s leading corporations after almost 70 years. Joining McDonald's means thinking big and preparing for a career that can have influence around the world.

At McDonald’s, we see every day as a chance to create positive impact. We lead through our values centered on inclusivity, service, integrity, community and family. From support of Ronald McDonald House Charities to our Youth Opportunity project and sustainability initiatives, our values keep us dedicated to using our scale for good: good for our customers, people, industry and planet. We also offer a broad range of outstanding benefits including a sabbatical program, tuition assistance and flexible work arrangements.
Department OverviewCompany Description
McDonald’s is a global leader in the food service industry and a digital innovator reshaping how customers engage with our brand. The EDAA organization plays a strategic role in scaling our data capabilities to enable smarter decisions, enhance operations, and deliver better customer experiences around the world.
The Opportunity
We are looking for a Senior Machine Learning Engineer with strong technical expertise to design, build, and deploy scalable ML/AI solutions. In this role, you will be responsible for developing robust machine learning pipelines, optimizing model performance, and contributing to the design of ML/AI products that drive real business impact. You will collaborate closely with data scientists, product managers, and platform engineers to bring advanced ML capabilities into production.Equal Opportunity Statement McDonald’s is committed to equal employment opportunity and creating a diverse and inclusive workplace. We believe the best ideas emerge from a wide range of perspectives and experiences.

Requirements

• Master’s and plus degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Mathematics, or a related technical field (PhD is a plus).
• 5+ years of hands-on experience in machine learning, AI engineering, or related fields.
• Strong proficiency in Python and common ML libraries such as scikit-learn, TensorFlow, PyTorch.
• Solid understanding of ML concepts including feature engineering, model selection, hyperparameter tuning, and evaluation metrics.
• Experience building production-grade ML systems, including model serving and monitoring.
• Proficiency with modern MLOps tools (e.g., MLflow, Kubeflow, Airflow, CI/CD frameworks).
• Experience with cloud platforms such as Google Cloud Platform, Amazon Web Services.
• Strong problem-solving skills and the ability to work independently on complex technical challenges.

Nice To Haves

• Familiar with McDonald’s business
• Experience with time series forecasting, LLMs, or AI agent frameworks.
• Familiarity with distributed training and large-scale model deployment.
• Experience applying advanced techniques such as reinforcement learning, generative AI, or retrieval-augmented generation (RAG).
• Contributions to open-source ML frameworks or research publications.

Responsibilities

• Partner with product and business teams to define problems and translate them into data-driven solutions.
• Conduct exploratory data analysis (EDA) and extract actionable insights from structured and unstructured datasets.
• Develop, validate, and iterate on predictive models using techniques in supervised, unsupervised, and/or time series learning.
• Communicate modeling outcomes through clear visualizations and presentations to both technical and non-technical stakeholders.
• Design, build, and optimize end-to-end machine learning pipelines — from data ingestion and feature engineering to model training, evaluation, and deployment.
• Develop and maintain scalable ML infrastructure to support both batch and real-time inference.
• Build high-performing models for forecasting, prediction, recommendation, or intelligent automation, depending on business use cases.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams to translate business problems into effective ML solutions.
• Conduct feature selection, model tuning, and performance optimization to ensure production-grade reliability and scalability.
• Implement monitoring, retraining, and evaluation strategies to maintain model quality over time.
• Explore and apply state-of-the-art ML/AI methods, including deep learning, generative AI, and agentic frameworks where applicable.
• Ensure best practices in ML engineering, including version control, CI/CD, MLOps, and documentation.

Benefits

• This position offers health and welfare benefits, a 401(k) plan, adoption assistance program, educational assistance program, flexible ways of working, and time off policies (including sick leave, parental leave, and vacation/PTO).
• This position is eligible for a bonus, calculated based on individual and company performance.
• This position is eligible for stock or other equity grants pursuant to McDonald’s long-term incentive plan.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Manager